Researchers modeled early placental formation in the lab by treating human pluripotent stem cells with BMP4, offering a workaround to ethical and technical limits of studying human embryos.

The VGLL1 gene is activated very early in placenta formation and is essential for directing pluripotent stem cells to differentiate into placental cell types; decreasing VGLL1 activity halts placental development.

Understanding VGLL1’s role could inform future fertility treatments, including improving embryo transfer success in IVF and guiding drugs that target VGLL1-related pathways to boost embryo quality and viability.

VGLL1 and KDM6B activity is observed in the outer layer of the early embryo, especially in the implantation region where the placenta originates.

VGLL1 enhances placenta formation by coordinating signaling across multiple pathways and directly regulating the enzyme KDM6B, which primes placental genes for activation.